Ale, Ale, the Linux Gang's Here

Steve Kettmann
08.22.01

BERLIN -- No word yet on whether they'll be wearing shiny little "Happy Birthday" hats with penguins on them or drinking some special Linux brew cooked up by the local monks, but the night sure won't be dull.

The first day of the third annual Linux Beer Hike -- a weeklong event starting Aug. 25 -- will coincide with the 10th birthday of Linus Torvalds' operating system.

The 150 or more open-source true believers gathering in Bouillon, Belgium, plan to make the most of the occasion, throwing a birthday party in Linux's honor -- and doing their best to hook up with birthday celebrations planned in other countries.

It's been 10 years since Torvalds took to the public the OS he wrote as a college student in Finland. He wrote in a post that day that he was "doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386 (486) AT clones."

"There is talk of getting a Belgian company to make a lot of chocolate penguins," said John Caulfeild, a retired programmer and farmer who has done some organizing for this year's event. "But it's hard to say. This is a holiday, so people don't like being organized. Organizing this bunch is like herding cats. It doesn't happen."

That goes for plans to set up a streaming video link with the other main Linux birthday party, which will take place in Sunnyvale, California's Baylands Park from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., also on Aug. 25.

The big penguin party, however, is the one in Belgium, where revelers will embark on a week of Linux talk, hiking and beer drinking. Last year, the event took place in England's Lake District, and the year before, the first-ever Linux Beer Hike took place in the Northern Bavarian town of Tüchersfeld, Germany, attracting about 40 people.

"It seems as if every year the event has its own soul," said another part-time organizer, Henrik Levkowetz of Stockholm, Sweden. "Last year was a bit more Linux than the year before, but I won't try to prophesize what will happen this year."

"I don't think that any one of them -- Linux, hiking or beer -- will take over and dominate. If it was beer, that would make it both an unhealthy and an expensive week."